How do I add depth to my mix?

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jonas5000

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This topic more than certain has been addressed before, but i notice that my tracks seem very "flat". I assume that a lot of it has to do with my tracking, but lately i have been creating all of my instrumentation in fruity loops 7 (drums, synths) and have been then exporting them to adobe audition as separate tracks. in other words, the only real tracking i have control of is my vocal tracks which i throw into adobe later. i'm trying to add depth to the mix so that i sounds like i'm in a actual room and there is a natural sound, or at least as natural as i'm going to get. any helpful tips?
 
Depth can be defined a number of ways. Two of them are: 1) an element's distance from the listener, and 2) an elements distance from other elements.

The cheap and easy way to address (1) is to throw some sloppy wet reverb on stuff. Don't do that.

Start with (2). Make sure all your instruments have their own space in the mix. I mean panned to different places in the stereo spread; eq'd well so they have their own frequencies to occupy; change the volume levels of different instruments at different points (where appropriate, of course) so they move forward & back.

Just some starting points.

Hope this helps...
 
One other thought. Just as distance can be many things, so can "flat." Once you have enough posts to post a link, so should give us a listen to something with the "flat" problem, so we can here what you're talking about.
 
Also remember that having a defined "acoustic space" for each element will help - this doesn't necessarily mean reverbs as most think of them. Often, early reflections can help create "space" and "depth" to elements in a mix, as well as very short "room" reverbs. Because reverbs with long decay times take up so much space in a mix, they should be only used very sparingly to highly specific elements, if it all.




as ever, IMHO, YMMV etc.
 
response

thanks for the responses. whitestrat, you mentioned that eq'ing things properly will give each part their own frequency. that makes sense to me. would using a graphic eq do the trick, or do you have something better in mind, or some method that you use that always does the trick? just looking for something to point me in the right direction, and then i'll tweak it towards my own sound. thanks.
 
Probably the easiest and best way (IMHO, FWTW) to add depth to a mix is to add depth to the arrangement.

G.
 
jonas5000 said:
thanks for the responses. whitestrat, you mentioned that eq'ing things properly will give each part their own frequency. that makes sense to me. would using a graphic eq do the trick, or do you have something better in mind, or some method that you use that always does the trick? just looking for something to point me in the right direction, and then i'll tweak it towards my own sound. thanks.
Click to expand...

(Just to be clear--we're talking about eq'ing individual tracks and not the whole mix as one.) Have you got a parametric eq plug in? That's better than graphic eq for creating notches for individual instruments & tracks. For more good info on using eq in this manner, click on Southside Glen's name (the post just above this one). When you click on his name, you'll get a pull down menu. Go to his website and you'll find an eq chart that will help you determine what frequencies are important to what instruments, voices, etc.
 
Hey Strat, I appreciate the plug. Your *cough influence pedaling kickback cough* check will be in the mail soon :p :D.

Jonas, as long as you're poking around the website, and as long as you have that parametric EQ in your paws like Strat recommends, check out this article on parametric sweeping.

While this technique won't necessarily directly add depth to your mix, it is a good way to carve out some extra "space" in the mix in which to find that depth.

G.
 
The perception of depth in a mix is achieved with various delays, reverbs, and panning applied to all the sources in the mix.

Dry sounds seem closer, delayed or reverb set a sound back farther in the mix.

As an example of a mix I just finished. The kick was dry which put it center and close, the snare had a just a bit of plate reverb set at 15ms predelay and 0 secs. On the toms, cymbals and hit-hat I used the room mics to define the room. I then panned everything but the kick and snare to either left or right. Overall it gave the drums the impression of a mid sized room. Compression was applied to the snare, kick and overheads which also has the effect of bringing them closer to the listener. Drums were done.

Guitars were panned either right or left with alternate delays panned in the opposite direction.

Vocal was centered, compressed with a stereo delay so the delay sounded like it was bounced from a room far left and right. Just a touch was added to the vocal, almost imperceptible.

Bass was dry, compressed, right up the middle.

The list goes on for keyboards and other things but by panning placement, and various delays applied to some elements of the mix, along with drier and more compressed items which sound closer, you get the overall impression of various levels of depth and width.

Hope that helps.
 
....and knowing is half the battle

my cup of knowledge runneth over. thanks for the info, especially for those website links. i was never aware of how to get the most out of the parametric eq. i did quite a bit with adding reverb/delays and panning, but was still looking for something more. i believe you've sent me walking on the right path now. thanks.
 
add depth in the mix by adding depth in the musical arrangement... it's probably the most effective way.
 
One thing I've done is to track at lower levels. I don't run it up to "just below clipping" like I did in 16 bit recordings. Not sure what your gear is but that in itself has helped to get some clarity and depth back in my mixes.

Just another thought for ya...:cool:
 
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